out, and then extinguished, as is the case with the American firefly, but shining steadily as long as it remains on the wing: you can scarcely conceive how beautiful it is. Imagine now the planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and others as bright, coming down from above, and flying around through the air, over the roof, and among the trees and bushes, and you behold the cuculio; it has the loveliest, clear blue fire which you can imagine.
Fireflies make their appearance at the commencement
of the rainy season, and has we have now had a couple of
small showers, to the great joy of the coffee-planters, the
cuculios show themselves as soon as it begins to grow
dark. They are not, however, numerous as yet; but I
am told that when the rainy season sets in, in May, June,
and July, they become so numerous that the heads of
large trees are sometimes entirely covered with them, and
gleam out as from millions of little tapers. It is not
known here how and whence they come, it is maintained
that during the dry season they conceal themselves in
decayed trees; they now feed on sugar-cane, and I have
a whole party in a glass in my room, where they sack
pieces of sugar-cane. They seem to be very well off
there, and think more about eating, apparently, than
freedom; they sit quite still and suck the cane, and
their light seems dimmed the while; but if I oblige
them with a bath of fresh water, it becomes bright again,
and the whole creature more lively. Sometimes when
I wake in the night, I hear a buzzing noise in my room,
and see one or two cuculios flying about, and lighting
up every part of the room which they approach.
I have to day drawn a couple of them in my album. I have here a perfect frenzy, sketching and drawing, people, birds, trees, flowers, dwellings, everything which strikes me; and so much strikes me here, from its beauty or its novelty, that I am in a continual drawing fever. Many of my efforts are not wholly successful, both from want of time and artistic
